According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), and this has been true since 1994 – nearly 20 years, there is no one diabetic diet that represents THE prescription for THE way ALL people with diabetes should eat.

Are there ‘diabetic foods’ which people with diabetes should buy? NO!

Foods labeled ‘diabetic’ or ‘diabetic-friendly’ carry a halo of being better-for-you than unprocessed, unadulterated and unlabeled foods. But, it’s just not so.

These recommendations reflect the growing body of evidence that a plant-based eating plan can help people achieve and maintain a healthy body weight and prevent and manage chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.

Have you heard that the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) randomized controlled trial conducted through National Institutes of Health (NIH) was ended two years ahead of schedule? This news crossed my eyes first on 10/20/2012 via twitter. Got to love twitter!

The press information from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), announced on 10/19/2012 that the trial had been stopped about a month earlier – in September. Why? Because in this long and lengthy trial, in which people had been enrolled for up to 11 years, the people in the intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) group did not experience a decrease in cardiovascular events (CV) (heart attacks, strokes, etc.) compared with the people in the control group.

The Key Look AHEAD Question…and AnswerCan an intensive lifestyle intervention program (ILI) which achieves and maintains weight loss help prevent/delay the heart and circulatory problems which are the most common complications of type 2?

As a diabetes educator/healthcare provider (DHCP) I’m observing that the rapidly growing world of the Diabetes Online Community, (the DOC) is helping people with diabetes (PWD) and their loved ones find support, feel supported. People are connecting, building relationships and feeling more positive about the challenges of managing their diabetes. I’m delighted to see this trend!

As a DHCP I’ve long realized that I can’t walk a mile in a PWD shoes (or in the case of this interviewee the shoes of a parent of a child with diabetes). I can’t know what it is like day in, day out to deal with this challenging and relentless disease. But, what I do know is that we can learn from each other to change the dialog between providers and PWD to be more positive, more supportive. In these Dialoging about Diabetes blogs I interview diabetes activists and social networkers with the goal of gathering ways DHCPs can change our practices to better support the diabetes care efforts of PWD and make living real life…just a bit easier.

This is one in a series of book reviews. You may find these books beneficial if you: manage prediabetes or diabetes (or for this book Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome), follow a diabetes meal plan and/or try to eat healthy to live well. This book review and others also appear on amazon.com. The books I’ve reviewed here can be found in my amazon a-store. Please check them out and consider a purchase.

Have you been diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)? Are you experiencing trouble getting pregnant? Or have you begun to link your symptoms of weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles, acne, and hair where you don’t want it and not where you do want it to what just might be PCOS?

If so, do you long for a book to help you learn the ins and outs about PCOS and how to manage it? Well, you’re in luck! Angela Grassi, MS, RD and Stephanie Mattei, Psy.D, who both apply their crafts (nutrition counseling and psychology, respectively) with women with PCOS, have created a valuable guide for this multifaceted disease, The PCOS Workbook.

You hear nutrition experts, or those who tout their nutrition bonafides, set forth a wide range of rules on THE WAY to succeed at weight loss. You’ll hear: eat no more than 40% of calories as carbohydrate, eat plenty of protein or get at least 50% of your calories as carbohydrate and limit fat to under 25% of calories, etc., or should I say ad nauseam.

Research and reality show there’s no ONE RIGHT formula for EVERYONE. Plus, in reality, the debate about the ideal mix of macronutrients (that’s carbohydrate, protein and fat) to eat comes down to a debate about where should 5 to 10% of your calories come from – carbohydrate, protein or fat?

As a dietitian and diabetes educator I know the critical importance of weight control as part of disease prevention and/or control and healthy living. I also know how challenging it is to keep pounds lost ….well, lost forever. It takes inner strength, fortitude, perseverance and much more. Compared to taking the pounds off, keeping the pounds off is THE hard work and it goes on endlessly. Good news is experts say it gets easier over time.

In this blog I’m dialoging with Bob Wilson, a dietetic technician in his day job. Bob was a morbidly obese teenager. He weighed 400 pounds in the 8th grade. He lost 250 pounds over 2 years when he hit 21. He has now kept his weight between 155 and 160 for 39 years. He’s been on a remarkable journey. Through his struggle to manage his weight Bob has amassed many learnings and skills and shares these at his website: balancedweightmanagement.com and in his book "Lighter and Free from the Inside Out". Bob wants millions of others to win “The Biggest Maintainer of Weight Lost” award. He graciously agreed to share.

HW Q: You discuss 12 Essential Skills for long term weight loss/control. Can you list the top 5 and briefly state why they’re most important to long term success? BW: A: My overarching message: for lasting success discover skill power, not willpower!

I’m just back from the American Diabetes Association’s 72nd Annual Scientific Sessions and I'm even more concerned about our diabetes epidemic. Prior to 10 year ago you never heard about type 2 diabetes in children or prediabetes. Not so today! Stats show 1 in 3 children born in 2000 or beyond will develop type 2 diabetes. Today nearly 80 million Americans (that’s over a quarter of our population!!) have prediabetes. The TODAY multicenter NIH trial, recently in the news and headliner at ADA, is downright scary! It showed that type 2 diabetes in youngsters progresses more quickly requiring more rapid progression through oral blood glucose lowering medications and on to insulin. A major concern with type 2 in youth is that with rapid disease progression and less than ideal control, these people may develop heart, kidney and eye disease just a couple of decades later. That's the prime of these childrens' lives.

A take away message from the 2012 ADA meeting is we’ve got to continue to beat the drum about preventing overweight BEFORE type 2 diabetes. The most cost effective approach is to encourage healthy eating from the start. I believe it’s absolutely critical for parents to take a seat AS the head of the table and serve up tough love when it comes to healthy eating.

This is one in a series of book reviews I've posted. You may find these books beneficial if you: manage your prediabetes or diabetes, follow a diabetes meal plan and/or are trying to eat healthy to live well. These book reviews also appear on amazon.com and the books can be found in my Amazon a-store. Please check them out and consider a purchase.

Nearly half a million Americans will die of heart disease this year. If you could make lifestyle changes to reduce your risk of heart disease by up to 70%, wouldn’t you start today?

Dietitian Janet Brill helps you and your loved ones keep a first heart attack from ever happening or prevent a second heart attack...in her book Prevent a Second Heart Attack: 8 Foods, 8 Weeks to ReverseHeart Disease. This book pairs the Mediterranean way of eating with physical activity.

We’re being urged via health messages and big marketing campaigns to eat more dietary fiber and simultaneously to chow down on more whole grains. Beyond the messages to achieve these goals ringing in our ears, a plethora of new foods greet us in the supermarket aisles. They tout, for example “5 grams of whole grains per serving,” “47% of dietary fiber per serving” or proudly focus your attention on the Whole Grains Stamp.

I’ve just got to share the sheer joy and reward I’ve recently experienced facilitating yet another chat-based online weight loss group for the program called vtrimonline.com.

Picture this: It’s Tuesday evening at 7pm ET. Somewhere between 10 to 20 people who range in age, health concerns and pounds to shed; log on to the vtrimonline website for one of our 12 weekly chats. No phones, no cauliflower ears or hoarse voices. Just our fingers!

During the hour I, as the registered dietitian facilitator, get group members to share their weeks’ weight loss wows and woes (with no mention of pounds lost). I deliver key content to help arm people with nutrition, fitness and psychological expertise to lose weight and (hopefully) keep it off. Topics range from how to get moving more each day, to tactics to deal with emotional eating, to healthy choices when eating out, and much more.

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Disclosure Statement

As a reliable, reputable voice in the food and nutrition world, I strive to blog and engage in social media with integrity. In doing so I abide by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Code of Ethics. Any blogs or social media posts that are sponsored or for which I am compensated for my time will be disclosed appropriately.